Embarking on a fitness journey is the first step to a better you.
As a women, this is the journey to becoming stronger, healthier, and happier.
This may come as a shocker, but even as a women, weightlifting can be an important aspect of this journey.
I began my weightlifting journey around a year and a half ago. The changes and improvements I’ve seen since then have been insane.
I truly believe that all women should implement weightlifting into their gym routine. Even if you’re a beginner in the gym, there’s no reason you shouldn’t start weight training.
In this post, I’ll dive into the reasons why I believe everyone should weight train.
The stereotype of weightlifting
It’s well known that weightlifting is seen as a “man’s spot”. But, this doesn’t mean it actually is.
Women can be strong and muscular without being manly. This is just a stereotype that’s used to discourage women from strengthening their mind and bodies by lifting weights.
Weightlifting makes women bulky
This is extremely untrue. Picking up a weight won’t turn you into a body builder in a day.
Most people who lift and look “bulky” are actively trying to look this way.
They push themselves every single day in the gym lifting as much as possible. Tracking everything they eat and are on a strict schedule.
Having been working out for YEARS and yet some of them still can’t look bulky!
The point is that it’s much harder than you think to get bulky. Even if you’re trying to look that way, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.
So it’s not something that should steer you away from lifting weights.
Becoming bulky isn’t something that happens accidentally or overnight. So most likely, it’s not something that’s going to happen to you. Unless that is your goal of course.
Building strength
The main purpose of weightlifting is to build muscle and strength.
A stronger body is much more athletic and fit. This leads to other benefits like increased bone density (which many women need) and greater overall health.
Additionally, having more muscle can help you lose fat.
Because muscle burns more calories than fat, the more muscle you have, the more calories your body needs. The more calories you need, the easier it is to be in a calorie deficit and lose fat.
Your body can also undergo a process called body recomposition. Body recomposition, or body recomp, is where you lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously.
The best way to body recomp is by lifting weights and lifting heavy. Additionally, you’ll want to be eating at either your maintenance calories or in a slight calorie deficit.
Your maintenance are how many calories your body need to maintain it’s weight. Whereas a calorie deficit is slightly below maintenance and allows you to lose weight.
I believe body recomposition is the best way to transform your body with weightlifting.
It gives you the power to build a completely different body. One that you’ve always dreamed of but never thought was achievable.
Benefits that aren’t physical
Although weightlifting is the best way to get a toned and fit physique, there are many benefits beyond your physical appearance.
For starters, weightlifting can help improve your mental strength.
One of the main aspects of weightlifting that I think is often overlooked are the mental battles that come along with it. There are countless mental battles that weightlifters face everyday in order to achieve there goals.
For example, you have to be able to show up everyday and push yourself in the gym.
This requires an insane amount of dedication and commitment that not everybody can muster up. It takes a lot to convince yourself to show up everyday, and to keep showing up.
One saying I like to keep in mind is “If it were easy, everyone would do it”. But, not everyone does. I think that shows a huge amount of mental strength in the people who do.
Finally, weightlifting can also bring changes to your body that improve your everyday life.
Things like higher energy levels and better quality sleep are both benefits that anyone who lifts weights can achieve.
Things like these make everyday life much easier and much more enjoyable.
Mental benefits
One of the biggest mental benefits from weightlifting is increased confidence.
I think the confidence increase comes from a few different reasons.
One) weightlifting helps you lose fat and improve your overall appearance.
It’s no secret that the better we think we look, the better we feel. So of course if we think we look better, we’re going to feel much better about ourselves.
Two) we hold ourselves accountable to being there every day.
Like I said before, this takes an insane amount of commitment which makes us feel good about ourselves. We’re there everyday knowing that we are bettering ourselves.
We chose to better ourselves out of the love we have for ourselves. And, we’re there knowing that we are improving our futures.
Three) We are kinder to ourselves.
Weightlifting makes us much more understanding of ourselves.
Yeah, we’re there yelling at ourselves in our heads to lift more and to lift heavier, but it also helps us be more understanding.
We understand our physical limits and push ourselves to these limits everyday. Because of that, our self image begins to change and we start using much more positive self talk.
Having an outlet in the gym
The gym gives us a place we feel comfortable in. Where we can let go of life’s worries and focus on nothing but our current workout.
For me personally, I know that being at the gym helps me feel grounded. I can focus a lot on physical sensations which helps take me out of my head and into reality.
By focusing on a mind to muscle connection, I can calm my thoughts and focus only on the present moment.
A mind to muscle connection is when you really hone in on the muscle your working out in a specific exercise. It’s when you focus on the muscle and can actually feel just that muscle working.
The gym is a community
Although gym anxiety is a very common thing, many people in the gym aren’t actually there to judge.
In fact, I find the gym is actually one big community.
In the gym, you find friends, supporters, and people rooting for you who don’t even know you.
Everyone is there to better themselves and love seeing other people also benefitting themselves.
It’s the thumbs ups, nods, and smiles you get from random people in the gym that give you the motivation.
Letting you know that what you’re doing is great, you’re pushing yourself, and other people see how good you’re doing.
Takeaways
If you’re thinking about weightlifting at all, DO IT!
I believe that weightlifting is one of the best forms of exercise (if not the best but I may be biased). The benefits aren’t just in your physical appearance, there are benefits that correlate to your everyday life.
Especially for women interested in weightlifting, if you want to improve your body, your life, and you mental strength, this is the way for you.
[convertkit form=6036486]